A24 and Alex Garland Triumph with ‘Civil War,’ Landing a Record-Breaking Debut

The cinematic landscape witnessed a box office shakeup this weekend as Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’ shone brightly, hauling in an impressive $25.7 million — setting the stage as the most successful debut for A24 to date. This figure not only topples their previous records but eclipses the combined debut earnings of ‘Monkey Man’ and ‘The First Omen’ by $7 million.

In spite of receiving a modest B- Cinemascore, the futuristic dystopian drama exceeded expectations by over 25 percent, riding high on its A24 pedigree, a captivating war narrative, significant pre-release buzz (including a highly publicized SXSW debut), relevance, original flair, IMAX screenings, and a slew of favorable critiques.

This milestone solidifies A24’s status in the indie film domain, particularly in the wake of noteworthy openings by Neon and IFC, albeit with modest gross revenues. With a lineup of past wide releases, A24 distinguishes itself as an established distributor in the independent film circuit, alongside its contemporaries, IFC and Neon. Interestingly, A24’s ‘Civil War,’ Neon’s ‘Immaculate,’ and IFC’s ‘Late Night with the Devil’ all cater to a similar demographic — young adults, with R-rated content that deviates from the traditional specialized film offerings.

Collectively, this weekend’s cinema gross totaled around $76 million, a staggering dip of nearly 50 percent from the corresponding weekend the previous year, ushering the year-to-date revenue to fall short by 16 percent. The underwhelming debuts witnessed last week exacerbated the slump, with ‘Monkey Man’ plunging by 59 percent and ‘The First Omen’ by 55 percent. ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ took a 50 percent hit but managed to clutch the second spot, with $158 million domestically and $437 million globally.

‘Sony’s ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ snagged third place, accumulating $97 million domestically after three weeks, while ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ experienced the least drop among the top 10, with a 29 percent decline, signifying a promising run towards the $200 million mark domestically.

The top 10 also featured newcomers like ‘The Long Game,’ a biopic showcasing a victorious 1950’s Latino golfers’ team at eighth place, the return of DreamWorks’ ‘Shrek 2’ at ninth, and a one-day special screening of the concert movie ‘Suga/Agust: Tour D-Day — The Movie.’

Leading the pack among new limited releases was the Neanderthal-themed comedy ‘Sasquatch Sunset,’ which fetched $93,500 across nine theatres in four cities, highlighted by an impressive turnout at New York’s Angelika Theater.

Other broader horror releases, however, fell flat, with the Australian ‘Sting’ (WellGo) grossing a mere $1.2 million in 1,350 theaters and Nicolas Cage’s ‘Arcadian’ (IFC) earning a dismal $481,000 in 1,100 theaters.

It’s worth noting a peculiar trend: For the second consecutive weekend, ‘Wicked Little Lies’ (Sony Pictures Classics) defied the norm of seeing a downturn on Sunday – forecasting an equal take as Saturday. Previous analytics indicated a 40 percent slide on Sunday, the most significant drop across the top 10 films.

This week, ‘Wicked Little Lies’ is predicted to pull in $820,000, yet this figure may warrant skepticism as last week’s estimate by SPC was off by 17 percent, requiring a discreet correction come Monday. While exact numbers will clarify upon the release of actuals, another double-digit variance could be in store, doubling down on an anomaly in the box office accounting that rarely graces the film industry’s ledger.